Hypotheses from the IDA Model

1. Hypotheses from the IDA Model Cognitive Science Seminar—Spring 2003 Stan Franklin

2. IDA’s Cognitive Cycle

3. The Cognitive Cycle Hypothesis • Hypothesis— Human cognitive processing is via a continuing sequence of Cognitive Cycles • Duration— Each cognitive cycle takes roughly 200 ms with steps 1 through 5 occupying about 80 ms. • Overlapping— Several cycles may have parts running simultaneously in parallel • Seriality— Consciousness maintains serial order and the illusion of continuity

4. CC1—Preconscious Perception CC2—Percept to Preconscious Buffers CC3—Retrieve Local Associations CC4—Competition for Consciousness CC5—Conscious Broadcast CC6—Recruitment of Resources CC7—Setting Goal-context Hierarchy CC8—Action Chosen CC9—Action Taken Cognitive Cycle Steps

5. CC1—Preconscious Perception • Hypothesis—Much of human understanding employs • a combined bottom up/top down • passing of activation • through a hierarchical conceptual net • Hypothesis—Nodes in the net have a base-level activation that • Increases along a saturating sigma curve with occurrences in consciousness • Decays with rate inverse to base-level activation

6. CC2—Percept to Preconscious Buffers • Hypothesis • The contents of perception are written to working memory before becoming conscious

7. Memory Diagram

8. CC3—Local Associations • Hypothesis — There exists a Transient Episodic Memory with decay rate measured in hours • Hypothesis — The entire contents of working memory cues both Transient Episodic Memory and Autobiographical Memory

9. CC4—Competition for Consciousness • Hypothesis —All the contents of consciousness are selected from Long Term Working Memory • Hypothesis —The capacity limitations of Working Memory are, in fact, capacity limitations on the contents of consciousness

10. CC5—Conscious Broadcast • GWT—The time of phenomenal consciousness • GWT—Contents of winning coalition broadcast to all codelets • Hypothesis—Contents written to Transient Episodic Memory • Hypothesis—Perception (slipnet et al) restructured to learn new meanings • Recognition • Categorization • Other meanings

11. CC6—Recruitment • GWT—Relevant behavior codelets respond to the broadcast

12. CC7—Setting Goal-context Hierarchy • Hypothesis—New action plan results from conscious broadcast • Hypothesis—Information for that plan and others comes from the contents of consciousness • Hypothesis—Relevance (importance, urgency, insistence, etc) of an action is determined by the situation as given by the contents of consciousness

13. CC8—Action Chosen • Hypothesis—Action selection depends on • Strength of drives (as implemented by feelings/emotions) • Relevance to the current situation (from conscious contents) • Relationship to other actions (behaviors in behavior stream) • Currently active goal context hierarchies (behavior streams)

14. Types of Action Selection • Hypothesis—There are three distinct types of action selection • Voluntary action selection • Consciously mediated action selection • Automatized action selection

15. CC9—Action Taken • Hypothesis—with each behavior selected is at least one corresponding expectation • Hypothesis—with each voluntary action selection is a reminder attention codelet

16. Recognition, Categorization & Meaning • Hypothesis—All are learned during CC5–conscious broadcast • Hypothesis—Can’t start from a blank slate–some built-in nodes • Hypothesis—Key role played by fringe attention codelets

17. IDA’s Cognitive Cycle • Specifies the role of consciousness in cognition • Clarifies the relationship between consciousness and the various memories • Makes explicit the role of consciousness in recruiting relevant resources • Provides a tool for the fine-grained analysis of various cognitive tasks